The Only Exception
by Mikmik Supreme
Summary: Draco and Hermione became Heads and friends after the war. Hermione had trouble sleeping. What did Draco do?


A/N

I wrote this two months ago when I wanted to celebrate for receiving my Pottermore welcome mail and only had today to type and post it.

So. Go on now for a little light reading. It's rated T because I don't know the difference between mild and minor coarse language. LOL.

And oh yeah, I got nothing.

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><p>He heard a knock and a sound of the door opening. Draco turned around to see Hermione in a white tank top and crimson sleeping shorts.<p>

"Draco," she said while closing the door.

"What is it, Hermione?"

"Can you…uhm…maybe…come with me to the kitchens?"

Draco raised his eyebrows.

"Did I just hear Muggle-born Hermione Granger ask me, the great, glorious and gorgeous," he stopped when Hermione jokingly winced but continued. "…Draco Malfoy to accompany her to the kitchens?"

"Your hearing's better than I deemed possible, Malfoy."

He cackled.

"Sure. Hungry? I'm actually hungry too."

"No, I just want a warm glass of milk. I can't sleep," she explained.

"Again?"

She had problem sleeping last night too, and he was gentleman enough to fetch her some milk. At least now, she's going with him.

She nodded sleepily.

"Come on," he said as he started to lead the way out of the Heads common room.

Hermione braced her arm to his and Draco couldn't help thinking about his confession a few days back.

He had told her how he really felt for her but Hermione just rejected him, saying she'd be nothing more than a friend to Draco.

"Aren't you going to get something? You said you're hungry."

"Ah yes," he said, shooing away his recent thoughts. He picked up some cookies and milk for himself, as Hermione already had hers.

They returned to their quarters arm in arm. Hermione went back to her room after finishing her milk, thanking Draco and saying good night.

"Anytime. Good night. Sleep well," he whispered before entering his own room.

But she sure didn't sleep well.

About half an hour later, a sleepy-eyed and messy-haired Hermione came knocking upon Draco's bedroom door again.

"Come in," she heard him speak.

She opened the door; Draco was sitting up, already under the blankets.

He gave her a slow once-over, swallowed and scored a deep breath.

"What?" she asked.

"What? Oh. Nothing."

"Are you okay?"

"No, I mean yes. I'm all right. I'm okay."

Hermione gazed at him well.

"I'm fine, Granger."

She shrugged her shoulders and finally said, "Okay." She welcomed herself in Draco's room and sat on his bed.

"What are you doing here? And why are you bringing your pillow?" he demanded while lying back.

"The milk didn't work. I still can't get myself to sleep," she pouted.

He stared at her, seeming caught up for a while, then suddenly turned away. He looked back again when he remembered something he recommended her the night before.

"Hermione, how about I-," Draco began but Hermione interrupted him.

"No, I won't rely on magic to make me sleep."

Her answer made him sigh.

"Pretty stubborn aren't we, Granger?"

A grunt was her only response.

"…"

"…"

Hermione was now lying beside him, over the blankets, still hugging her pillow.

"Why is it me you're always bothering anyways?" Draco pretended to be irked.

She beamed widely and said, "I've no one else to bother."

"Aren't you too lucky to have someone like me to disturb and distress?

"Maybe. However, aren't you too lucky to have someone like me who disturb and distress you?

He gave her a soft glare, but surrendered into a small laugh. "Possibly, who do you bother for the past years then?"

"Ginny, mostly, because she's closer," she said thoughtfully. "Otherwise, it's Harry or Ron."

"Yeah? So what did they do to get you to sleep?"

"Hmm. Nothing. I just sleep with them," she stated in her usual matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh. Then just-you-YOU WHAT?"

"I sleep with them," Hermione tried to repeat it louder and clearer because she was entirely puzzled by his irrelevant reaction. "Why are you-oh no!"

By the time she realized, Draco's thoughts was already full of images of Ginny Weasley together in bed with Hermione. Complete anger licked him though, when he imagined 'Saint Potter' doing unsaintly things to the girl he had come to adore. "AND EVEN THAT WEASEL!" his mind had screamed.

"It's not what you're- No!" Hermione's voice was almost panicky. She definitely didn't want him to think of her like that.

Draco was still in shock.

"I mean, I don't sleep _sleep_ with them, Draco. I mean, I sleep beside them," Hermione gazed at him and repeated what she said as if Draco was a toddler, "Beside. Just beside.

It took him a few seconds to catch up. "Oh."

She was a little nervous and she didn't know why. Nevertheless, she smilingly oh-ed back.

A very silent and tense minute had passed. There had been a lot of these awkward pauses between them since Draco confessed up.

He was the first to break the silence, obviously recovering from the terror she had mistakenly implied.

"So that's what you're doing now? Sleeping beside me, huh?"

"How very brilliant of you to have it figured out, Malfoy. Congratulations."

"Did it ever cross your genius mind to take my permission, Granger?"

Hermione looked quite astonished and embarrassed at first; but then she adopted a puppy look she learned from Ginny, pouted and started to talk way too slow and gentle.

"Will you let me sleep in your bed tonight, Draco? Pretty please? You know I really have a hard time sleeping. Will you, Draco?" she almost spoke his name with a purr.

Draco didn't know what to say, shown by the opening and closing of his mouth.

"Draco…"

"Okay," he breathed deeply. "Shut up. Stop the acting."

"Does that mean I have your permission now?" her voice was still sugary.

"Yes," he exasperatingly sighed.

She gave him a got-you grin back.

"You little Gryffindor, just because I like you doesn't mean…"

"Let's just sleep, Draco."

He snarled. And with that, he cast the lights off and prepared to sleep. A few moments had passed and with his signature Malfoy smirk, he spoke.

"I'd rather have you sleep with me, you know. I bet you'll like it, Gran-OUCH!"

Hermione whacked his face with a pillow. "Sleep, Malfoy," she said before turning her back on Draco, who rolled his eyes.

"Good night as well, Hermione," he replied sarcastically.

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><p>Hermione tried to sleep, but Draco was moving too much. She decided against scolding him because, after all, she was basically asking him a favor to let her sleep in his bed. When she felt him sit up and pull the blankets from under her, however, she reckoned it was quite more than she could take.<p>

"Draco! You're a fish out of water!" she turned around and snarled.

Draco instantly looked hurt, and pissed by her tone. "Well, I'm sorry, Granger." He threw her a violent look. "It's just that you seem too uncomfortable and maybe cold so I decided against my well-known stature to share my blankets with you."

She was speechless. Red crawled her face. Draco was about to cover her and somehow tuck her in, at least earlier. "And I bloody yelled at him!" she thought.

"I…I…"

She still didn't know what to say and Draco was fuming mad, being awake this time of the night surely contributed to his overwhelming anger.

"I've been all nice and hospitable to you tonight! But what do I get?"

"Draco…I…I'm…" she stammered. She was already becoming afraid of her Slytherin friend.

"I didn't mean to..." she started again. "Draco, I'm s-sorry. I shouldn't have gone and s-said that. I r-really didn't want to get you pissed off."

Draco lay back in bed and tried to steady his breathing. He was still mad.

"I-I'll just go b-back out," she said while removing herself off the bed. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

She stepped out the door cursing herself and was halfway through closing it when she heard Draco call her name.

"I'm sorry," he then paused for a few seconds posing a rather unreadable expression. "I was ju-"

"It's okay, Draco," she whispered gingerly, unable to look at his eyes, "You don't have to apologize as I'm apparently and definitely at fault."

And then came another one of those awkward silences.

"I-I'll go back to my room. Thank you."

"You can come back here."

She managed a smile and said, "No, it's okay."

But then. "Come back here, Hermione," Draco ordered in an authoritative tone she couldn't help but follow. Hermione's heart hammered inside her chest while she stepped cautiously towards Draco's bed. She sat down with her back on him.

"Go back to sleep," he commanded again before lying down.

Hermione slowly eased down the bed and put herself under the covers then turned to Draco.

"Are you not mad at me?" she pried.

"If I'm mad at you, I'd have you out the door before you can even blink or open your smart mouth. And that's just the start of it. Now. Hermione. Sleep."

Seeing that Draco stated that last retort with amusement in his eyes and suppressed mirth in his voice, she braved a playful smirk and managed a "Who's bossy now?" before turning away and closing her eyes, smiling.

Not more than ten minutes had passed when Hermone, still unfortunately awake, felt him move again. She completely ignored the shiftings until Draco's arm wound around her waist, making her immobile.

Deeply torn between detaching his arm in her body and letting him like that, she was shocked when he spoke.

"Sweet dreams have been evasive, I see."

Hermione inhaled quickly. Mostly because Draco's voice came out deep and husky.

"Uhm..." _Merlin, what's happening to me?_

Hermione thought it proper to remove his arm around her, but she couldn't. After all, deep inside she knew she fancied it. And her thoughts ran back to the time she could never forget.

She was utterly shocked when Draco confessed to her. Butterflies went fluttering inside her stomach, something she had never felt prior. Attracted didn't even begin to describe what she felt about Draco, especially when they became rather close friends after the war. She was trying unsuccessfully to discount it for one reason, he's a Malfoy. And all the other reasons came because of it, like the whole mudblood thing and the reactions she anticipated from Harry and Ron. She presumed it would be enough to reject Draco. But right now, at this moment, she had no ablity to gather herself and find the sense it what's happening.

"My mother used to sing to me when I had problems dozing off."

"Oh." Her heart still seemed to be fighting its way out of her.

"I'll sing to you."

"What?" she managed to articulate. "You sing?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, what are you singing?" she smilingly said. Anything to clear away her thoughts from his arm. It's just an arm. It's just an arm. She said it like a mantra inside her rumpled head.

"I don't know what's it called. I heard it from you."

"Me?"

"Yes. I mean, no...er... That noisy little muggle device you have."

"Oh, my iPod!" she swung around a little to look at him. "So you're singing a muggle song?" She apparently couldn't believe it.

She went back to her early bearings and said, "Okay."

The badgering absence of sound seemed to last forever.

"Maybe I know somewhere  
>Deep in my soul<br>That love never lasts," he sang. She had her mouth agape, his voice was beyond charming.

"And we've got to find other ways  
>To make it alone<br>Or keep a straight face."

"The Only Exception."

"What?"

"That's the title."

"Merlin, do you have to interrupt me with that?"

"I can't help," she defended.

"Bloody know-it-all."

Hermione was about to oppose him when he started singing again.

"And I've always lived like this  
>Keeping a comfortable distance." Then Draco moved closer, with his head almost touching hers. The next lines he sang softly in her ears.<p>

"And up until now, I had sworn to myself

That I'm content with loneliness," he crooned.

"Because none of it was ever worth the risk." he manuevered closer to Hermone, her back now against his chest. Her heart was doing somersaults.

"Well, you are the only exception  
>You are the only exception."<p>

It was only now that she contemplated on the song. _Was it how he feels?_ She almost prayed to die that instant.

"You are the only exception  
>You are the only exception."<p>

There was a chaotic bloody war in Hermione's head right now.

"I've got a tight grip on reality  
>But I can't let go of what's in front of me here," he continued.<p>

Two Hermione's battled in her head now.

_"He's a freaking Malfoy."  
><em>_"He's your friend now, at the least."  
><em>_"He called me a mudblood."  
><em>_"He's singing to you now."_

"I know you're leaving in the morning when you wake up  
>Leave me with some kind of proof, it's not a dream."<p>

_"He's the son of a Death-eater."  
><em>_"You're lying beside the son of a Death-eater."_

"You are the only exception  
>You are the only exception," he softly chanted.<p>

_"He hates Harry and Ron. And the feeling is mutual."  
><em>_"He likes you. And Hermione, the feeling is fucking mutual."_

She surprised herself when she covered Draco's arm with hers. Draco instantly stiffened.

"I guess it didn't work, no?" he suggested nervously.

She turned completely to look at him and wrapped her arm along his middle. "It will work," she said, beaming at him.

Draco's face was covered with longing and astonishment and worry. "Hermione, don't do this to me. Please sto-"

Hermione abruptly knocked whatever he was saying off by giving him a smack firm on the lips. Then gazing at him warmly straight in his eyes. "Good night, Draco," she said before closing her eyes. "And thank you."

Draco was silent. He had his eyes wide opened. Then...

"Hermione."

"Hmm," she opened her eyes a little.

"Why did you kiss me?"

"Bloody hell, Malfoy."

"Why?" he pushed.

"Because I want to," she answered, fighting a blush.

Draco smirked. Hermone hit him faintly. "What are you smirking at?"

"Say you like me."

"What?"

"You heard me, Granger."

"No," she pouted.

"Okay." He released her with a pained and irritated face. "You can go to your room now."

"What?" she repeated.

"And don't come to me when you have sleeping problems again, got it?"

Hermione felt panic burn her slowly, she definitely didn't want that. "OKAY! FINE."

Draco raised an eyebrow at her.

"I-I like you. Will you let me sleep here now?"

Slowly, his face transformed into a smug look. "Gotcha."

When she realized what he had done, she shouted, "You! You're toying with me!"

He wrapped his arms around her now and pulled her closer. She showed the slightest of resistance when she slapped his upper arm tenderly.

"Say it again."

Hesitance was obvious in her face but then she grinned and said, "I like you. I really really like you."

Draco partnered her grin. "Say you'll be my girlfriend."

Her eyes opened wide. "Pushy."

"Just say it, Hermione."

She rolled her eyes then looked at him with wonder and curiosity. Still smiling, she spoke.

"From now on, I _am_ your girlfriend."

She watched happiness wash Draco's face and beamed more widely, if possible, when he kissed her forehead and whispered, "Sweet dreams." Then he managed a pause and murmured.

"I love you."

Her heart skipped a beat. _Forget bloody status. Forget Harry and Ron._ She sighed then smiled. "I love you too."

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><p>I hope you like it! :)<p>

Of course, the song is The Only Exception by Paramore. I hope I got the lyrics right.

Uhm, review?

Love, Kaye XD


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